Letter from: Mr Peter Large
(Head of Members’ Services)
ACCA
29 Lincoln’s Inn Fields
London WC2A 3EE

12 November 96

Dear Mr Manek,

Employment by ACCA of freelance lecturers

Thank you for your letter of 7 November 1996, addressed to Gill Gibson.

Membership of ACCA does not carry any purported rights whatsoever to be asked to undertake paid engagements. Freelance lecturers are engaged by my Department on the basis of relevant ability. My standing instruction to Gill Gibson and her team is that where there are two equally matched lecturers but only one of them is an ACCA member, we should endeavour to give preference to that member, subject to normal commercial considerations such as fee levels.

The performance of the lecturers we employ is closely monitored. Appraisal forms are distributed at all events and lecturers who fail to meet delegates’ expectations are removed from the panel. Our panel of lecturers, therefore, changes on an ongoing basis. Having said this, we do endeavour to build long-term relationships with the consistently good performers and, as Gill Gibson has already pointed out, we are quite satisfied with those lecturers whom we are currently using in the subjects you have offered to speak on. We publish programmes at regular intervals and you will be able to see from these, those we have engaged to speak.

Council requires that ACCA’s professional courses be run on commercial lines and so you will appreciate, as the proprietor of a commercial courses business yourself, that it is not appropriate for me to disclose commercially sensitive information which goes beyond the broad policy points discussed above.

Finally, it remains my opinion that as you are the proprietor of a courses business which is in competition with ACCA (and which uses a name style which is very similar to a long-established ACCA publication) it is inappropriate to engage your services. This would remain my opinion even were a vacancy to arise on the panel in the respect of the subject areas in which you have offered to speak.

Whilst I see no need for any continuation of this correspondence, I would ask that you direct any further comments which you wish to make on this matter directly to me.

Yours sincerely,
Peter Large

From: Mr J Manek FCCA
18 Greenway
London N20,



19 November 1996 

Dear Mr Large,

My request for lecturing at ACCA - Audit Exemption & Reduced Disclosure in company accounts

Thank you for your reply letter of 12 November 96. I, as an ACCA member with a proven record of excellence, have made a perfectly normal and reasonable request for an opportunity for lecturing at ACCA. The onus therefore lies with your team at ACCA to show my request is being dealt with fairly.

I reply in the same order as your letter:

Preference to ACCA Member:
I note ACCA members are given a preference. That is commendable since ACCA belongs to its members.

Performance monitored:
I have no problem and I have sent you a copy of my achievement at AAT which shows 92% satisfaction rate.

Names of current speakers on this subject:
I regret you do not provide the names. I have tried to find out from whatever little information I have. Would it be correct to say the only speaker on this subject is a Mr A Perkins FCCA?

Commercial threat to ACCA’s business:
(a) Your speaker Mr A Perkins FCCA, I remember reading in Accountancy Age, has recently become the chief executive of Emile Woolf College, a PLC which has numerous courses in UK, the Far East and other countries.
(b) I also recollect reading that Mr Harvey, the past President of ACCA, was a part of the same Emile Woolf College.
(c) Mr Paul Soper FCCA, a tax speaker, lectures not only at ACCA but also - BPP Plc, - InPractice CPE Training Ltd - PTP courses at Golders Green - in house lectures for accy firms
(d) Mavis Sargent FCCA (past Council member) makes presentations at ACCA and has made presentations at InPractice CPE Training Ltd.
(e) Ross Midgley (ACCA Finance Director) was a speaker at ACCA and also at InPractice CPE Training Ltd.
So, how can I be a commercial threat to ACCA when the above are not? How can you reconcile what you wrote with the above facts?

ACCA Council’s requirement for commercial operation:
I have no problem with this. I do not understand which information I have asked for in my letter is commercially sensitive. Please elaborate.

Competition from my company to ACCA’s commerce:
I think you are unduly worried about this. My little company, InPractice CPE Training Ltd:
- is not a professional body with 52,000 captive members like ACCA
- does not have courses all over UK and overseas like ACCA
- does not have Queens Award for Export like ACCA
- does not have a Royal Charter like ACCA
- does nothing which detracts from ACCA members, on the contrary whatever little it does enhances the knowledge and professional performance of ACCA members
- is not the entity that will present lecture, it will only be myself in my private capacity as an ACCA sole practitioner, author and lecturer.
Therefore, I cannot see how my little company can be a significant commercial threat to ACCA’s commercial operations.

“InPractice” in my company’s name:
“InPractice” name has been used by my company for many years. You say “In Practice” is the name of ACCA magazine. But then CIMA also have a practice magazine entitled “In Practice”. These two words are in common parlance in English language. Besides, I do not want to lecture at ACCA as “Mr In-Practice” but as “Mr Manek FCCA”. To avoid any misunderstanding, I have never insisted on my company’s name being mentioned at any lectures I deliver for ACCA, nor is there any need.

ACCA members’ wish:
Many ACCA practitioners keep asking me why I do not lecture at ACCA seminars. I tell them I am now making an effort to “arrive”.

Ethnic speakers:
As you know, more than a half of ACCA’s membership are of ethnic origin, but the proportion of ethnic speakers at ACCA is minuscule. Yet I as a speaker of ethnic origin is being refused, although I have a proven record of excellence and have more than adequate ability and experience. If ACCA have two lecturers on this subject, I can be the third on rotation basis, if ACCA have five, I can be the sixth, if ACCA have ten, I can be the eleventh.

Council:
May I ask you to please consult with ACCA Council members? I am sure they will agree ACCA’s income and commercial success can be boosted in view of my successful delivery - they all like it very much, AAT appraisal shows 92%. The appraisal of my lecture at Institute of Cost & Executive Accountants was equally successful.

I have sent a copy of this letter to Mavis Sargent who is an ACCA Council member. I look forward to your reply in due course.

Yours sincerely,
Jaffer Manek FCCA 

From : Mr Peter Large
(Head of Members’ Services)
ACCA
29 Lincoln’s Inn Fields
London WC2A 3EE

21 November 1996

Dear Mr Manek,

Employment by ACCA of freelance lecturers

Thank you for your letter of 19 November 1996, in reply to my letter of 12 November, and I note your comments and opinions.

I believe that my letter of 12 November set out sufficiently the basis on which freelance lecturers are engaged by my Department and I have nothing to add to the reasons contained therein for not engaging your services at the present time.

I suggest that no useful purpose will be served by further correspondence on this matter and I will simply acknowledge any further letters regarding this matter that you choose to send.

Yours sincerely,
Peter Large